1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to magnetic fields. More particularly, the present invention relates to apparatus and method for augmenting the earth's magnetic field in living spaces for work, sleep, and/or play, for general enhancement of health and medical therapy, and for long-term whole-body magnetic therapy.
2. Background Art
The importance of D.C. magnetic fields to all living cells is well known. In addition, there is an abundance of medical literature that convincingly proves the therapeutic value of D.C. magnetic fields to heal bones and to relieve muscle soreness.
Permanent magnets have been used singularly as shoe insoles, they have been used as bracelets and necklaces, and large numbers of magnets have been distributed over large areas to provide magnetic blankets. While the use of magnets as bracelets and necklaces would seem to be folklore, there is abundant evidence that D.C. magnetic fields do accelerate bone healing.
Included in the many patents on magnetic-field therapy, commonly referred to as biomagnetics, is Markoll, U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,049, issued Sep. 9, 1997. Although the use of permanent magnets applied to the body has been proven to promote bone healing, a question remains: what happens to cell communication at locations, adjacent to the permanent magnets, in which the magnetic force of the magnet cancels the beneficial effects of the earth's magnetic field.
Guay et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,185, issued Jul. 13, 1993, teaches the use of a plurality of magnetic strips that are disposed in longitudinal and parallel spaced-apart rows under a quilted top and a foam layer of a mattress. Even if each magnetic strip had only two poles, the result would be a sleeping surface with a relatively large number of poles. Therefore, it would appear that the user's body would be subject to magnetic fields that would, at various places in his body, cancel the earth's magnetic field and its beneficial effects.
Sakuma et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,233, issued Sep. 15, 1998, also teach applying permanent magnets to aching portions of a person's body. They report cases in which patients having arthritis and osteoarthritis found relief in magnetic therapy.
While the known temporary medical benefits of permanent magnet therapy for relief of muscle pain, accelerated bone healing, and relief of arthritis pain may outweigh any negative effects, subjecting a human body to a large number of magnetic-field deficient sites for a long period of time, as must be the situation with blankets that use a large number of permanent magnets, may be harmful.
QRS America offers a pad upon which a person may lie, and be subjected to magnetic-field therapy that is defined as, "quantron resonance therapy using pulsed magnetic fields operating at a range of frequencies." More information is available from QRS America, 2321 Sandlewood Drive, Venice, Fla. 34293.
There is considerable evidence that A.C. magnetic fields, particularly in the 50 and 60 Hertz frequencies generally used in homes and industry, hamper proper cell communication. Convincing evidence is available on the Internet from EMF-Link of Information Ventures, Inc., 425 South 15th Street, Suite 700, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102, regarding the harmful effects of A.C. magnetic fields.
Dr. Neil Cherry, a New Zealand researcher, states that tests on breast cancer cells prove that A.C. magnetic fields in the range of 2.0 to 12.0 milligauss cancel the oncostatic effect of melatonin.
Alternating-current magnetic fields have also been connected with an increase of almost four times in Alzheimer's disease among workers who use industrial sewing machines, as reported by E. Sobel and his associates in two articles published in Neurology magazine.
In contrast, as reported in the Online Edition of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Heritage, May, 1998, Volume 6, Number 11, tests conducted by the Creation Evidences Museum in Glen Rose, Tex., in an environment free from A.C. magnetic fields and their debilitating effects and also exposed to a D.C. magnetic field of 5.0 gauss, resulted in extending the life of fruit flies. It is believed that the researcher was Dr. Carl E. Baugh, director of the museum.
While much work has been done with regard to magnetic-field healing, very little has been done to overcome the harmful effects of A.C. magnetic fields, and thereby to provide a more healthful environment. However, Litovitz et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,665, issued Aug. 13, 1996, seeks to overcome the harmful effects of A.C. magnetic fields by superimposing a pulsating D.C. field onto A.C. magnetic fields.
It is well-known that the earth's magnetic field is decreasing, and that it is decreasing exponentially, as a function of "e" to a negative exponent that consists of a time multiplied by a constant.
Therefore, it is logical to assume that the earth's magnetic field is now of a lower magnitude than that which would provide optimum health. Further, the magnitude of the earth's magnetic field varies regionally, and so it is even further reduced from a healthful optimum in some geographical areas.
Knowing that the earth's magnetic field is essential to cell communications, knowing that this beneficial field has decreased from an earlier optimum-health magnitude, knowing that the magnitude of the earth's magnetic field is even lower in some geographical areas, and believing that A.C. magnetic fields are harmful, which seems to be well proven, it is hypothesized herein that one way to overcome, or at least minimize, the harmful effects of A.C. magnetic fields is to augment, or supplement, the earth's D.C. magnetic fields in living spaces used for such activities as work, recreation, and sleep.
That is, if a certain magnitude of a D.C. magnetic field is necessary for healthful cell communications, then when an A.C. magnetic field happens to be oriented substantially in line with the earth's magnetic poles, then the summed A.C. and D.C. fields may produce a fluctuating D.C. field in which the minimum magnitude may not be sufficient for healthful cell communication.
Unfortunately, researchers into the deleterious effects of A.C. magnetic fields may not have considered either the three-axis relationship of A.C. magnetic fields to the earth's magnetic field or regional differences in magnitude of the earth's magnetic field. Hopefully, future researchers will consider not only the three-axis relationship of A.C. fields to the earth's magnetic poles, but also regional variations of the earth's magnetic field.
Knowing that increased levels of D.C. magnetic fields are beneficial, providing a D.C. magnetic field at any three-axis orientation that adds to the earth's magnetic field should be beneficial to health. That is, the trigonometrically-summed D.C. field will be of greater magnitude than the earth's magnetic field, alone.
Therefore, when human or animal life is subjected to A.C. magnetic fields, and these A.C. magnetic fields are trigonometrically-summed with the trigonometrically-summed magnitude of the earth's magnetic field and an augmenting D.C. magnetic field, the minimum D.C. magnetic field will be of sufficient strength to provide for healthful cell communications.
Whether augmenting the earth's magnetic field with an other D.C. magnetic field will obviate the detrimental effect of A.C. magnetic fields on the action of Melatonin is yet to be proven. However, based on the beneficial effects of higher magnetic fields on fruit flies in a controlled environment, as mentioned above, it appears certain that the magnetic field augmenters of the present invention will provide a more healthful environment, even it they do not overcome all of the detrimental effects of A.C. magnetic fields.
Therefore, if the entire body of a person, or the entire bodies of a group of people, animals, and/or plants are totally immersed for extended periods, preferably for a number of hours each day, in a D.C. magnetic field provided by one of the magnetic-field augmenters of the present invention, the health benefits should be substantial and much greater than scanning the body with a D.C. magnetic field as taught by Lu et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,185.
Since healthful cell communications are critical in life processes, it may be that magnetic-field-augmented living spaces will help prevent some cancers, although this is yet to be proven. However, the use of food additives, hormones in animal growth, insecticides, pesticides, and other chemicals make it seem extremely unlikely that an augmented magnetic field will prevent all cancers.
On the other hand, it may be that living spaces with higher-gauss augmentation may help cure some cancers. It should be understood that, as defined herein, if a patient is living in a hospital bed, and an augmented magnetic field is supplied above his mattress, he is living in a magnetic-field-augmented living space.
Furthermore, just as it has become common medical procedure to provide supplementary oxygen to seriously-ill patients, there may come a day when it is equally common to provide relatively long-term, and whole-body, magnetic therapy as taught herein, either separately, or together with supplementary oxygen.
In summary, in the present invention, various magnetic-field-augmented apparatus and various magnetic-field augmenters are taught herein wherein an entire human body, or that of any other living thing, may be subjected to an augmented magnetic field of as low as 1.0 gauss for a number of hours each day for maintenance of health, or to a considerably higher level of D.C. magnetic fields for days at a time for treatment of disease.
Although a major thrust of the present invention is augmenting the earth's D.C. magnetic field, when the present invention is practiced for therapy, and the body is exposed to higher gauss levels, the present invention is characterized as providing living spaces for wholebody immersion into a magnetic field, whether or not the earth's magnetic field is excluded, and whether or not supplementary oxygen is included in therapy.